New Census poverty data: 1.3 million living in poverty in NC

NC has the 14^th highest child poverty rate in the nation

[Raleigh] – The U.S. Census Bureau released today its 2023 American Community Survey data for states, providing the latest data on poverty and income in North Carolina. The data reveal that poverty rates in North Carolina remained stubbornly persistent. The 2023 poverty rate in North Carolina was 12.8%, which is unchanged from 2022.

This translates to over 1.3 million North Carolinians  living in poverty in 2023, meaning with an income under $31,200 for a family of four. North Carolina had the 17^th highest poverty rate across all states and Washington DC.

This data comes as the NC General Assembly just passed HB10, a bill that contains haphazard, non-comprehensive adjustments that would leave the General Fund with an unappropriated balance of more than $116 million that could be used to address the need for affordable child care, housing, and more for people in North Carolina who are living in poverty.

“These high levels of hardship in NC show what we all know — economic policies that benefit the wealthy don’t trickle down to help people living in poverty or do what is needed to build up an economy that delivers well-being to all,” said Alexandra Sirota, Executive Director of the nonpartisan NC Budget & Tax Center.  “Take the elimination of the corporate income tax in NC after 2030:  Even as corporations keep the prices of goods high and bring in record profits, state lawmakers aren’t asking corporations to pay what they owe in taxes so families can afford child care and housing near their jobs, so that workers can train for good jobs, and so that people can access the health care they need.”

Nearly 400,000 of the North Carolinians living in poverty were children. The state has a child poverty rate of 17.4 percent, the 14^th highest in the nation. Like the overall poverty rate, the child poverty rate showed no statistically significant change from 2022.

“Elevated rates of child poverty in North Carolina are enormously costly, both in terms of long-term outcomes for kids and for our state economy as a whole,” said Sally Hodges-Copple, Public Policy Analyst with the NC Budget & Tax Center. “But poverty is also a policy choice: Fourteen other states nationwide have built on the poverty-busting success of the federal Child Tax Credit by enacting their own state-level version, and our state lawmakers can and should follow suit.”

Data in the American Community Survey reflect the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), which only paint a partial picture of the needs across our state. The OPM doesn’t account for critical tax and social safety net policies, or for important factors like the cost of living, essential expenses, and regional differences. For additional information we can also turn to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which takes all these factors into account. The SPM is not available annually at the state-level, but national data on the SPM show the power of policy like tax credits to reduce poverty. For example, the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit together lifted 6.4 million people out of poverty nationwide in 2023.

Additional North Carolina figures from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 American Community Survey data include:

• Median household income in North Carolina was $70,804 in 2023. After adjusting for inflation there was no statistically significant growth in median income from 2022. This shows that the benefits of economic growth under our current model are not reaching the average worker.
• Poverty rates continued to be higher for North Carolinians who are Black (19.4 percent), Hispanic or Latine (19.1 percent), and American Indian and Alaska Native (24.7 percent). The poverty rate for North Carolinians who are white alone was 9.3 percent.  Given persistent barriers to economic opportunity and the failure of existing economic rules to narrow these differences, this highlights the need for targeted investments in communities of color. These investments can build a more equitable economy that benefits all North Carolinians.
• The poverty rate for North Carolinians 65 years or older remained at 10.9 percent.
• North Carolina saw no statistically significant change in the share of people without health insurance from 2022 to 2023. 9.2 percent of residents had no health insurance. While the state legislature finally expanded Medicaid in 2023, the policy was not implemented until December of that year, meaning it had little effect on uninsured rates for the entire year. Enrollment in Medicaid has grown significantly since implementation of the expansion, so we expect to see higher rates of insured North Carolinians in next year’s data. This data release shows that the uninsured rate was 77% higher in non-expansion states compared to states with expanded Medicaid throughout 2023.

Overall, this latest data release shows little movement on tackling poverty and inequities across North Carolina.

“No North Carolinian deserves to live in poverty. People in our state deserve policies that deliver access to opportunity for all through meaningful investments in the things that ease hardship and improve quality of life for everyday people. This means a budget process that includes them and that delivers access to child care, affordable housing, workforce development, and public education, not giveaways to the wealthy few and big corporations,” said Heba Atwa, Legislative Advocacy and Campaigns Manager with the NC Budget & Tax Center.

ABOUT NC BUDGET & TAX CENTER: The NC Budget & Tax Center is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that documents fiscal and economic conditions in communities to support the work of people, organizations, and government to advance solutions to poverty and pursue racial equity.

Contact: Alexandra Sirota, Executive Director of the NC Budget & Tax Center, [email protected], or Mel Umbarger, Communications & Technology Manager, [email protected]